Hello and welcome to today’s property surveying blog post in which we are going to be taking a look at Party Wall Surveying matters. Within this blog post, I am going to be concentrating on Party Wall Notice and more specifically taking a look at section 10(4) Notices.
Firstly let us take a look at what a Party Wall Notice is and what it should entail.
Party Wall Notice
A Party Wall Notice is what will need to be served to any owner freehold and leasehold of a property, where the planned works taking place fall under The Party Wall etc Act 1996 and there is a shared party wall/ structure or in case of excavations the neighboring property (adjoining owner) is within 3 to 6m of any proposed excavations, depending on the depth of the foundations.
The Party Wall Notice will be sent to the adjoining owners by way of a letter that will have the details of the building owner (the one proposing the works) or their surveyor, the works that are being carried out, what sections of the Act they fall under and will generally include drawings (this is mandatory for section 6 works).
How can you respond to a Party Wall Notice?
When it comes to responding to the Party Wall Notice there are 3 distinct response options that an adjoining owner will have available to them.
Consenting to the Party Wall Notice
The first option is to consent to the Party Wall Notice, by consenting to the Party Wall Notice this would mean that you are happy for the planned works to go ahead without the involvement of The Party Wall etc Act 1996 or without a Part Wall Surveyor, and if a dispute was to arise then this would be dealt with in a neighborly manner or by way of common law.
Dissent to the Party Wall Notice and have an Agreed Party Wall Surveyor
The second response option is to dissent to the Party Wall Notice and have an Agreed Party Wall Surveyor. So the building owner and the adjoining owner will both share one surveyor who will act impartially to implement the Party Wall procedure.
Dissent to the Party Wall Notice appoint your own Party Wall Surveyor
The last response option that one would have available to them when it comes to responding to the party wall Notice would be to dissent and appoint your own surveyor so each party involved will have their own surveyor and those surveyors will work together to ensure that The Party Wall etc Act 1996 is upheld and adhered to.
Party Wall Notice Timings
The Part Wall Notice comes with a minimum time period that it must be served to the adjoining owners before any planned works are able to be carried out.
For any planned works that fall under sections 1 and 6 of the Party Wall etc Act 1996, this would require a Notice to be served 1 month prior to the planned works commencing.
Where for any planned works that fall under section 2 of the Party Wall Act etc Act 1996 then a 2 month notice will need to be given to the adjoining owners before the works are able to commence.
When a Party Wall Notice has been served there is a limited time in which the adjoining will have to respond to the Notice, which if exceed then a second 10(4) notice will need to be served.
The first Party Wall Notice allows for a response time of 16 days from when the notice has been served, this consist of a 14-day statutory period and a 2-day postage allowance.
If the first Party Wall Notice is not responded to then a second Party Wall Notice must be served which is typically referred to as the 10(4) notice. Once served this will give the adjoining owner 12 days to respond, consisting of a 10-day statutory period and a 2-day postage allowance.
The adjoining owner may respond at this point which will then give them the right to choose any of the standard response options available to a Party Wall Notice.
If the 10(4) Party Wall Notice is not responded to then this is when section 10(4) of the Party Wall etc Act 1996 will come into play, which will allow the building owner to appoint a Party Wall Surveyor on behalf of the unresponsive owner.
This is to ensure that the planned works are capable of going ahead without incurring major delays, while also allowing for some protection of the adjoining owner’s property.
I hope this gives you further insight into Party Wall Surveying matters and into a section 10(4) Party Wall Notice, if you have any further queries or questions on Party Wall Surveying matters or any of the other services that we offer here at Stokemont, then please feel free to give us a call today or alternatively pop us an email of one of our team of experienced Party Wall Surveyors will be happy to assist and advise you.
